


To Thine Own Self Be True

by woodsong_1978 (Vae)



Category: Firefly
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-15
Updated: 2010-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vae/pseuds/woodsong_1978
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Identity's just another face to wear</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Thine Own Self Be True

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to lvs2read for beta-check - any remaining errors are my own fault. Written for [elishabet](elishabet.livejournal.com) for [Help Haiti](http://commmunity.livejournal.com/help_haiti).

There are days, sometimes, when Simon honestly wonders if he's done the right thing. If he hasn't damaged River further by taking her away from the academy, if maybe they were doing...something...it looked intentional. Some kind of plan, some purpose not quite fulfilled. Something he'd interrupted by kidnapping her. That was what the warrant said he'd done, kidnapped his own sister. Before whatever it was had been completed, leaving her a stranger to him most of the time, a stranger who looks out of River's eyes and moves with River's grace and speaks musical strings of nonsense in River's voice.

Except when she's like this, sedated and still restless, under a blanket on the narrow bed in the infirmary, and Simon's resigning himself to another sleepless night perched on an uncomfortable stool and studying the scans again, trying to work out the pattern, consider alternate cocktails of chemicals to balance the physical changes. When River's like this, no matter what's happened before, Simon can almost believe that she's still the girl who left Capital City, wide-eyed and excited at the opportunity to learn, to be challenged. Not the girl who fights to know herself from hour to hour.

"You ever think maybe she ain't who you think she is?"

Simon doesn't even look up, flipping the scans again, laying them over each other, next to each other, as if a new angle will give him that elusive answer. "Always," he says simply, and then looks up, eyes tracking up and up to find the captain watching him with that odd mix of compassion and challenge. "She's still my sister."

"Yeah." A moment, and the captain moves into the infirmary, slow, deliberate pace to bring him closer to both Simon and River. "But who's that?"

"That's River." There's a lifetime of love in his voice, of watching her outstrip him in every way and never a trace of jealousy. Whoever River was, whoever she is, that's one thing that doesn't change, won't change, wherever they are. She'll always be his sister, and his sister will always be River.

Simon watches the captain, watches that intent focus move to River, the aborted movement of hand towards her finally completed to pull the blanket up higher, smooth it over her arm. Sees the half-frown drawing thick brows together in the moment before it's smoothed away and Mal turns his face to Simon instead. "And who are you?" Mal asks softly.

_River's brother_ is the first answer that comes to his lips, swallowed back unspoken. Gabriel's disinherited son, Regan's shame, a trauma surgeon with no license to practise. Simon looks over at River again, lying peacefully for now, and back at Mal, just as still. "Simon," he says finally, hand dropping from the scans to rest between splayed knees, feet propped on the bar of the stool. "Just Simon."

Mal's hand lifts again, but not towards River this time. This time, blunt fingers linger over Simon's jaw, thumb pressed against his chin until Simon's lips part, blue eyes steady and unreadable on Simon's. "You're a lot more than that, Doc," Mal murmurs, almost below hearing, and his hand drops away, leaving a chill behind where warmth has retreated. "Let me know when you figure it out."

Maybe he's done the right thing after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Joss is boss. The characters aren't mine, neither is the 'verse. Just playing here. No profit is being made. No copyright infringement intended.


End file.
